I Mary

"A handbook for compassion... a Must-Read Music Book.” —Rolling Stone Country "Generous and big-hearted, Gauthier has stories to tell and worthwhile advice to share." —Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much Is True "Gauthier has an uncanny ability to combine songwriting craft with a seeker’s vulnerability and a sage’s wisdom.” —Amy Ray, Indigo Girls From the Grammy nominated folk singer and songwriter, an inspiring exploration of creativity and the redemptive power of song Mary Gauthier was twelve years old when she was given her Aunt Jenny’s old guitar and taught herself to play with a Mel Bay basic guitar workbook. Music offered her a window to a world where others felt the way she did. Songs became lifelines to her, and she longed to write her own, one day. Then, for a decade, while struggling with addiction, Gauthier put her dream away and her call to songwriting faded. It wasn’t until she got sober and went to an open mic with a friend did she realize that she not only still wanted to write songs, she needed to. Today, Gauthier is a decorated musical artist, with numerous awards and recognition for her songwriting, including a Grammy nomination. In Saved by a Song, Mary Gauthier pulls the curtain back on the artistry of songwriting. Part memoir, part philosophy of art, part nuts and bolts of songwriting, her book celebrates the redemptive power of song to inspire and bring seemingly different kinds of people together.

A new appraisal of the first Tudor queen offers a detailed portrait of the daughter of Henry VIII and his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon, exploring her religious faith and policies, as well as her historical significance in English history.

Acclaimed potter Mary Fox, known for creating stunning gravity-defying decorative vessels as well as contemporary functional ware, tells the story of her life as an artist.

Just Mary and Maggie Muggins are names that will arouse memories in those who grew up with CBC radio and television in the 1940s and 1950s. The creator of these and other children’s shows, former Fredericton schoolteacher Mary Grannan, became a radio star when she hit the national airwaves in 1939, her popularity peaking when Maggie Muggins moved to television in 1955. Long before The Friendly Giant and Mr. Dressup appeared, her work helped to shape the legacy of gentle children’s programming on CBC. Building on her broadcasting success, Grannan published over thirty books, most runaway best-sellers. Attired in stylish dress, extravagant hats, and enormous earrings, she made frequent guest appearances at public events across the country. She received the Beaver Award for her broadcasting and was honoured by the International Mark Twain Society and the Institute for Education by Radio at Ohio State University. "Just Mary": The Life of Mary Evelyn Grannan is the first biography of this creative and once well-known Canadian woman. Immersing the reader in rich detail while showcasing excerpts of her writings through the years, the book presents an intimate examination of her life journey through previously unreleased personal letters, archives, an abundance of photographs, and interviews with family, friends, colleagues, and former students. This is the private Mary Grannan as the public has never before known her.

This volume of Tudor Roses presents new and reimagined garments based on the original Tudor Roses published in 1998. Alice Starmore looks to historical female figures of the Tudor Dynasty as inspiration for her stunning knitwear, and her modernization of traditional Fair Isle and Aran patterns has created a sensation in the knitting world. Through garment design, Starmore and her daughter Jade tell the stories of fourteen women connected with the Tudor dynasty. They weave a narrative around the known facts of their subjects' lives using photography, art, and the only medium through which the Tudor women could leave a lasting physical record in their world — needlework. Tudor Roses includes fourteen patterns for sweaters and other wearables that follow the chronological order of the Tudor dynasty. A different model portrays each of the Tudor women, from Elizabeth Woodville, grandmother of Henry VIII, through Mary, Queen of Scots. The stunning design and photography appeals to knitters seeking designs that offer an attractive balance of historic and modern elements.

Poetry. Indigenous Australian Poetry. When Teena McCarthy told me she had constructed this book from poems, lines, phrases and images that she had written on odd-sized pieces of paper and had gathered them until they formed a manuscript, I immediately thought of Emily Dickinson, who also wrote many of her poems on the backs of envelopes and scraps that had been used as shopping lists. The connection is not far-fetched: McCarthy connects startling images to form intense visions that vibrate with arresting music. The poems in BUSH MARY work on multiple levels 'Äì woven from history, life experience and metaphor are visionary chords made of words. Images appear gradually, sometimes over several pages, like photographic prints forming in developing chemicals. I want to use the word--mystical' here--harsh and beautiful, these poems ache with reality and seem to bring poetry back to life again. This book reads as if written by a poet working before the last century of modernism; albeit aware of that era, it comes from the pre-dawn of poetry before it became clogged with the 'Äòanxiety of influence' and experimental verse. Maybe the poems trace mystic notes. McCarthy's visions and dreams--abstract stories--bristle with a technique and meaning that became a triumph. It's the confidence of a poet who has nailed it, then shaped her season in hell into an instrument that sings. It is poetry created from transformed traumas, and importantly, effortless praise, for both survivors and old ghosts that flash behind the present moment or line from the past. As we read, yesterday, today and tomorrow mix, and a generous spirit is revealed that doesn't grow bitter even after every rotten deal has been broken and served up to the poet and her people. There's only the poem, only the new life to be written and lived out, only the song that strikes into your soul, reinventing love and compassion by its flashing words and naked statements. In the fifth century, Saint Augustine said, A virgin conceives, yet remains a virgin: a virgin is heavy with child; a virgin brings forth her child, yet she is always a virgin. McCarthy, almost 2000 years later, replies, We can no longer escape / into the truth of Bush Mary, / we're non-virgin, / used by carnal. / She is every body. / Bush Mary blood'. Then, like Eurydice, 'ÄòShe has no voice. McCarthy creates that voice in profoundly visual poems, and answers the colonising First Fleet and its following Christians: She is a single mother / with a bush / She is the fucking Holy Ghost. Robert Adamson

Turn these pages, and you will find yourself surprisingly inspired by a murderer locked up in prison, a drug-using football player who dreamed of the pros, and a selfish, womanizing dare-devil who died and met God. You will root for a husband and father whose marriage was a battleground, a homosexual man searching desperately to belong, and an innocent lamb who lost, in a single moment, everyone he cared about most. And you will rejoice that their sins and their pasts were no obstacle for heaven. All of these men became living beacons of hope, walking proof of the triumph of the human spirit over darkness. In the heat of the fiercest of spiritual battles, when all seemed lost and these men were left with nothing to stand on but stormy seas, they were given a lifeboat, a new path in life-one that they never dreamed of, not for an instant. They were pulled in a different direction that, at first, they didn't want, and then at last, they loved. In the boat of safety, they sailed with sure victory into breathtaking, unknown vistas. This book exposes the inner lives of six remarkable men: their private guilt, masked pain, secret hopes and loves-things they normally do not share, but perhaps with one human being. Yet, by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, they have openly revealed to us what most men never do, their souls. While this book may be about six males, it is for everyone, because it is also a book about a woman. That woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the boat of safety for all of us, the surest and safest passage to the heart of her Son. She is our victory and sweet reassurance that God's plan is infinitely better than our own; and she is our challenge to follow her Son, no matter the cost, no matter how fierce the battle. Read the stories of these brave men, and you will inevitably come away with a desire to climb in the boat with them and sail safely home.

Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their seven-year-old stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she's made Molly and Michael's life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the country to live in a house that used to be a church, with a cemetery in the backyard. If that's not bad enough, Heather starts talking to a ghost named Helen and warning Molly and Michael that Helen is coming for them. Molly feels certain Heather is in some kind of danger, but every time she tries to help, Heather twists things around to get her into trouble. It seems as if things can't get any worse. But they do—when Helen comes.